The Evening Redness in the West

Indian Creek, Utah.  End of my first day of splitter climbing, last November.  No scalphunters or gigantic, bald, erudite, bloodthirsty demons encountered.

Local Cragging

I touched some rocks!  New rocks, even!  Yay for spring-ish and a start to the season.  It was a ridiculously gorgeous day at Safe Harbor, and the climbing was full of calf-burning slab and nice views of the Susquehanna.

This picture, however, is from last year (MC cruising up...something. And wearing my helmet, no less), and is a different pile of local semi-choss (Birdsboro!).  I didn't take my camera.

Stir-Crazy

Plastic =/= rock.  WIIIIIIIINTEEEEEER.

Romancing the Stone

Skull Fuck, The Hole, New River Gorge.

Crack Attack

Two things.  One, mis amigos built one of these in the basement.  It's name is Gary Busey (because reasons) and it will bring the pain and then, hopefully, the offwidth strength.   Second, I had a particularly good day (gym...sigh) climbing today.  That's all.

Iron Hand in a Velvet Glove

You cannot make a revolution with silk gloves, and you cannot climb the cables route of Half Dome without visiting the glove repository (lest you fill your palms with tiny metal slivers).

Get in the Tub!

CB working her way up the slab section of Bathtub Mary, 5.11a, in the Muir Valley of the Red River Gorge.  From the slab, you pull into a huuuuuge hueco which gives the climb its name.  You could have a picnic in that thing.

Dog Pile

Someone's dog was gallivanting in Summersville Lake.  A sheepish pile o' fur and his stick, NRG.

Anniversary

Dawn light through the Fisher Towers, near Moab, UT.  The start of a very good day, amid a very, very good six months.  Here's to six more, and six more, and six more (you get the idea)!

Prone

JG in a rare truly restful (although not the most elegant) rest before the crux, high on Iniquity, 5.12b, at the Midnight Surf wall in the Red River Gorge.

Flyin' Hawaiian

DI on Flying Hawaiian, a beautiful piece of 11b rock on the Waimea wall at Rumney.  Its got everything- starts with a (rough) boulder problem, pulls a little roof on jugs, then rolls up into the sweeping, curved dihedral you can see above him here.

Rising Dark

Ominous title for a pleasant little post.  JS on Tube Steaks Tomorrow, a pleasant little hand crack!  The best part of the route is the many opportunities for laybacking, which I, sport climber, never appreciated so much before I entered the land of the splitters.

King of All He Surveys

SZ looking out over the Indian Creek valley.  He has huuuuge...tracts of land.  (What, the curtains?)

We Be Jamming

SZ in (a crappy, sketchy, sandy) hand crack at Second Meat Wall, Indian Creek.  No fewer than three people, myself included, bailed off of this moderate.  It was a cold morning and a weirdish route- there were face feet, which should make a splitter easier, but they were so sandy that the wall just exfoliated under your shoes and you felt like they could pop at any time.  The sandy crack made the gear less trustworthy too.  But mostly I think we just didn't have our heads in the game for the day yet.

Natural Light

Evening sun through denuded cottonwood trees, in the valley between the cliffs of Indian Creek.  A break from pictures of climbers.

Astride the Stone Horse

SW, leg deep (given the angle, it was really tempting to title this post "Balls Deep"...admire my partial restraint) and nearing the top of Binou's Crack.  There's something comforting about being able to jam a whole leg in a crack; you know you're not going to slip out, and often you can pretty much sit on it, especially if it takes a curve like this one.

Top Out

RH making a grab for the chains atop Sparkling Schnitzel, a 5.11 off-width (tricksy baaaarely off-width; hand-fist stacks for me, and not big enough for a knee jam) in Indian Creek, Utah.

Get ready for a string of desert pictures, cause somebody just got back from MOAB.

Whippoorwilled

MD cruising up Don Miron, 5.11c, alongside Summersville Lake, NRG.

Cross-Eyed & Blind

Once more into the breach; the last trip to climb in the ol' EnArGee before the horrible, horrible winter descends on the east coast.  I've been feeling quite strong lately, and am looking forward to doing battle with the climb pictured here, Cross-Eyed & Blind, an 11a at the first buttress of the Meadow.  It's a beautiful line on beautiful stone, long, with many interesting moves.  Usually on a trip, I like to get on a bunch of routes, try them once or twice, not really caring about the send.  For whatever reason, Cross-Eyed is one of the few that really captures my imagination and my ambition.  If not this trip, then another- I know that I will send this.

Halfway to the "Wedding Day"

Yours truly putting up Wedding Day, 10b, as the sun sets behind the dihedrals of Smith Rock.  For an easy route, this had a bit of  a heady crux for me.  Stood there like an idiot for a while before I could commit- sometimes a good no-hands rest is a liability!  And while I was dithering, the guy on the 12+ around the corner whipped out of his crux about five times.